July 10, 2015

Art and fashion have always been flirting, but the links between the two disciplines dramatically strengthened in the last few years thanks to collaborations, exhibitions and collections that bridged the gap between them. For their Haute Couture show, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren went even further designing dresses that can be turned into paintings.

Rather than being a conventional runway presentation, the event was conceived as a fashion performance at the Mezzanine of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

The show opened with a model wearing a white canvas draped around her body. The innovative element was the fact that the canvas was still attached to its (strategically cracked) frame, so that she looked as if someone had cartoonishly smashed a painting over her head.

Further coats, jackets, skirts and dresses each characterised by the same construction (though in some cases they were trimmed with a gilded frame...) followed.

As the collection progressed shapes and silhouettes became more and more voluminous, surreal and complex with the final look being a rather extreme and suspended construction depicting a still life.

The main point was not identifying the paintings - among them "The Threatened Swan" by Jan Asselijn, "Venus and Adonis" by Ferdinand Bol and "Girl in a Large Hat" by Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen - that mainly derived from the Rijksmuseum Collection, or seeing if it was possible to use them as metaphors for a specific meaning or message behind the designs, but to ponder a bit about the theme of duplicity and about various techniques employed in fashion that can elevate it to art.

The design duo chose indeed classic paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and the action painting technique with raw splotches of colours and paint energetically splattered on the canvases.

The canvases were made with linen bonded to white crepe and the paint was made by layering laser-cut jacquards, embroideries and appliqués.

Besides, while each design was created to be worn - the title of the collection is indeed "Wearable Art" - each one can also be displayed as proper artworks as the designers proved when, after helping the models stepping out of the various arty constructions, they hung the pieces on a wall.

While a tiered gown turned into a triptych with canvas spilling out from the gilded frames, others were transformed into wall sculptures, so rather than being a private show for their clients and for some selected members of the press, this was a show for art dealers as well, with a few gallery owners sitting in the front row.

There is not doubt that the inspiration for this arty collection may have come from Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum's Rijksstudio, an online archive comprising 125,000 works that gives the chance to users who register for free to access the museum collection and download ultra high-resolution images or sections and details of specific artworks.

So does this collection qualify as art or fashion? It may be difficult to pigeonhole it, but one thing is for sure, Viktor & Rolf have proved that stepping away from the endless ready-to-wear shows is not a mistake since it can reward a designer with more time to think and experiment, create installations and even turn into performance artists, while developing new solutions for inventive collections (see the hinges inserted into the frames to turn them into collars for coats and capes).

There are actually further links between this collection and art - the first one is dedicated to the Instagram generation: the design duo (@viktor_and_rolf) partnered with digital creative Isabelita Virtual (@isabelitavirtual) for an exclusive Instagram digital art "auction".

You can get inspired by this collection and create art for art sake's and post it with the tag #ViktorandRolfArtAuction. The competition closes on Tuesday July 14th and the most creative entry will win an exclusive Haute Couture art piece inspired by this collection.

Nefkens has once again pledged a purchase from this collection that will also be donated to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. It won't be "wearable art" then as it will be statically exhibited in a museum? Well, yes, you got it, but, as the contemporary art market is crazy at the moment, the value of the pieces will considerably increase.

Looks like leaving ready-to-wear and keeping the fragrance business (the 10th anniversary of Flowerbomb was celebrated during Haute Couture Week with a huge party at Paris' Le Trianon theatre...) was a clever choice then for V&R.